Six Organs Of Admittance

Inspired by the solo guitar explorations that fused Eastern and Western traditions from John Fahey and Robbie Basho, Northern California guitarist Ben Chasny has amassed an extensive and varied catalog as Six Organs of Admittance. Blending experimental new folk with drone, percussion, chimes, and unconventional textures, Chasny produced a steady stream of distinctive recordings on independent labels throughout the early 2000s, later establishing a lasting association with Drag City that yielded key releases such as 2006's Sun Awakens and 2012's Ascent. He subsequently created a card-driven compositional method known as Hexadic to generate music and issued multiple albums tied to the approach, before returning to his main project with efforts including 2021's The Veiled Sea and the 2024 Shackleton collaboration Jinxed by Being.

Following his guitar contributions to the free rock outfit Plague Lounge during the late 1990s, Chasny launched Six Organs of Admittance in 1998; the project's self-titled, self-released debut surfaced later that year, succeeded by assorted compilation appearances and lesser-known items. The Manifestation EP arrived in 2000 via Ba Da Bing! as a one-sided, clear vinyl release containing a single extended track—later reissued on CD by Strange Attractors in 2004 with additional material—and incorporated female vocals alongside varied percussion supporting Chasny's central guitar work. Also in 2000, Dust and Chimes emerged first in a limited Pavilion edition and subsequently in an expanded Holy Mountain version; the project's second full-length presented raga-inflected guitar surrounded by bells, chimes, drones, and Chasny's layered, chant-like vocals.

Chasny initiated a connection with Comets on Fire in 2003 that evolved into a permanent role as touring and recording member. That same year he issued Compathia on Holy Mountain along with two Time-Lag titles: a CD reissue of the 1999 limited-edition Nightly Trembling and the significant For Octavio Paz. After extensive recording and touring with Comets on Fire during 2004, Chasny reentered the studio to deliver the evocative School of the Flower on Drag City in January 2005. Sun Awakens and Shelter from the Ash followed in 2006 and 2007. Following touring commitments and an extended hiatus in 2008, Six Organs commenced a highly productive 2009, beginning with the sonically expansive and heavily electric Luminous Night and continuing with the double-disc retrospective RTZ, both on Drag City.

Chasny and associates also supplied a vinyl-only soundtrack for Joseph Mattson's novel Empty the Sun on Barnacle in a limited edition that paired the recording with the book itself. Chasny and guitarist Andrew Mitchell, performing as Six Organs, captured an all-acoustic limited CD-R titled Live at the Cat's Cradle, documented by Cory Rayborn in October. Throughout 2010 Chasny immersed himself in the writings of French critic Gaston Bachelard and American theology professor Catherine Keller, whose ideas deeply shaped the composition, arrangement, and recording of the subsequent, primarily acoustic Six Organs album Asleep on the Floodplain, released in early spring 2011 on Drag City. The project reappeared in summer 2012 with the more electric Ascent.

Over the following years Chasny toured while refining a card-based music system he named Hexadic, initially devised to help guitarists escape habitual patterns through unfamiliar tonal relationships—each card corresponding to a note on the neck—and later extended to additional instruments. Six Organs of Admittance released two albums titled after the system in 2015. Shifting back toward a direct folk foundation, Chasny issued Burning the Threshold in February 2017. A third Hexadic album, assembled by Chasny yet featuring none of his own performances, appeared in 2018; afterward he resumed Six Organs activities with the 2020 mesmerizing Companion Rises LP. The next year brought his twentieth Six Organs album, The Veiled Sea, which ventured into abstract prog more extensively than prior installments, even incorporating a Faust cover. In 2024 Chasny issued two albums under the Six Organs banner: the fully solo Time Is Glass, built from haunted and unsettled rural folk elements, and Jinxed by Being, a more psychedelic, electronics-oriented collaboration with Shackleton.